In this section

From the Reformation to the Restoration

THE REFORMATION

The Reformation at Salisbury brought remarkably
few constitutional changes.
Rather, there was an accentuation of late medieval developments. Most
obvious was the extension of the power of the
Crown over both bishop and chapter. Bishops and
deans were henceforth nominated by the Crown
as a matter of course in letters missive sent to the
chapter with its congé d'élire; and the deans, like
the bishops, were frequently imposed from outside, being apparently no longer required to be
members of the chapter before election. Bishop
Shaxton and Bishop Capon, like earlier bishops,
had to collate to the prebends many nominees
of the Crown, of Cromwell, and of other royal
officials. (fn. 394) An interesting constitutional experiment was that of royal visitations of the cathedral
chapters, during which the bishop's jurisdiction at
his cathedral was suspended. The system, however, was in full operation only at intervals between 1535 and 1559; since then the Crown has
not suspended episcopal authority. (fn. 395) The Tudors,
moreover, used the royal injunctions issued after
their visitations chiefly as a means of carrying
through their religious changes. Most of their
orders were about images, relics, lights, preaching,
theological books to be acquired for the cathedral
library, and education. Injunctions on constitutional matters were much more rarely given, and
the royal commissioners seem to have found the
investigating and interpreting of cathedral statutes
a particularly difficult task. The few constitutional
changes which they ordered were usually observed
only temporarily or not at all, unless they happened
ultimately to accord with the development of
cathedral customs. (fn. 396) It was over 200 years since
the last comprehensive revision of the cathedral
statutes by Bishop Mortival, and, as at other cathedrals of the Old Foundation, many statutes at
Salisbury were at variance with existing custom.
Both Mary and Elizabeth I were given power by
Parliament to revise cathedral statutes, but little
was done. By 1572 a draft was prepared by Archbishop Parker; then the whole project was apparently quashed. (fn. 397) The medieval statutes of Salisbury
remained in force, and the canons on their admission swore to obey both them and 'the laudable
and approved customs' of the church, with the
qualification 'in so far as they agree with the Word
of God and with the laws of the kingdom'. (fn. 398) For
the future, when episcopal or archiepiscopal visitors
pointed out that the ancient statutes of the church
were not observed, or that recent chapter acts were
contrary to the statutes, the dean and chapter
merely replied that they had sworn to obey the
customs as well as the statutes, and that customs
were often more in accord than the statutes with
the present needs and constitution of their church. (fn. 399)

The fall in numbers of resident clergy, already
observed in the late 15th century, was confirmed
and carried farther, although the residentiary
canons remained at about seven or eight throughout the Reformation period. (fn. 400) The biggest changes
were among the lesser clergy and followed the
dissolution of the chantries in 1547-8. The chantry priests disappeared from the cathedral, and the
functions and revenues of the vicars choral were
much reduced. Masses for the souls of the founders of the chantries were no longer said and the
daily High Mass and Mass of the Virgin in the
Lady Chapel were also soon to be abolished. The
reformers resented the idea that priests should be
appointed merely to sing in choir, saying that they
were more urgently needed in the parishes, while
laymen with good voices could perform the choral
duties in the cathedral more efficiently. In 1539
the chapter rejected a lay vicar nominated by
Bishop Shaxton for Thomas Cromwell, because
he was not a priest and Cromwell's stall in the
cathedral was a priest's stall; (fn. 401) but by 1547 lay
vicars were being appointed, and there was apparently competition for their offices. The vicars
choral seem from the first to have had the right of
nominating or approving the appointments of lay
vicars, and paid their salaries from their common
fund. In 1547 fourteen vicars choral agreed at the
king's request to the admission of Patrick Forde,
layman, as a lay vicar to the next vacant place after
the admission of Robert Courtenay, who had already been promised the next vacancy. (fn. 402) In 1552
there were still 20 vicars choral, but by 1568 the
numbers had fallen to 7 vicars choral and 7 lay
vicars. (fn. 403) Six vicars choral and 7 lay vicars appeared
in 1593, when the sub-treasurer was a lay vicar. (fn. 404)
His fall in status was doubtless the result of the loss
of many of the cathedral treasures, which had
reduced the importance of his office. The chief
function of the altarists was removed with the
destruction of the altars and chantries. Men or
boys were still needed to help the vergers to clean
the church and to ring the bells (though bell ringing was less frequent than before), but these duties
alone were not suitable for former choristers. At
first efforts were made to divert some of the
revenues from the altarists' stipends to the education of choristers whose voices had broken. Injunctions of Edward VI and Elizabeth I ordered
that choristers who had served for five years or
more in the church and whose voices had broken
should no longer be appointed to do the work of
altarists, but should be given an altarist's stipend
of £3 6s. 8d. a year for five years to support them
while studying at the free grammar school in the
close. At the same time three men were to be
appointed and paid by the treasurer and two by the
Masters of the Fabric to keep the church clean
and to ring the bells. (fn. 405) For a time these orders were
partially observed. (fn. 406) By 1593, however, the altarists' portions were no longer given to scholars, but
to the lay vicars as a help towards their maintenance. (fn. 407) Throughout the greater part of the 17th
century and beyond, four or five lay vicars received
the traditional payments allotted to altarists in the
Middle Ages. (fn. 408) The number of choristers also fell.
By 1552 they were only 8; in 1569 the chapter
declared that they should not exceed 10; in 1580
they were 8; in 1593 6. (fn. 409)

The loss and damage to the chapter's property,
though serious, was probably less devastating
than many of the canons expected. Only six prebends were lost, and five more involved in Bishop
Capon's exchanges of property. The prebends of
Sherborne, Loders, and Upavon were dissolved
with the monasteries which held them; Blewbury
prebend, after being appropriated for a time to
Wolsey's Oxford college, was annexed to Salisbury
bishopric in 1542; while Faringdon and Horton
prebends were alienated in Edward VI's reign,
Horton going to the Duke of Somerset. (fn. 410) In 1542
and 1545 by Acts of Parliament Bedwyn prebend
was exchanged for Uffculme (Devon); Charminster and Bere for Ilfracombe (Devon); Axford
and Ramsbury for Gillingham (Dors.), which was
divided into the two prebends of Gillingham
Major and Gillingham Minor; and Ratfyn for
Winterbourne Earls. (fn. 411) Further losses followed the
dissolution of the cathedral chantries, though some
of their property was 'concealed' until Elizabeth's
reign. The chapter succeeded in retaining the
Abbot of Sherborne's canonical house of residence
in the close, but lost most of the houses appropriated to chantry chaplains. (fn. 412) Pensions payable
by religious houses to the chapter were ordered to
be paid by the future owners of their lands. With
the transfer of the archdeaconry of Dorset to the
new diocese of Bristol, the archdeacon ceased to be
a member of the chapter. The most disastrous
results for later generations were the loss and
destruction of many of the cathedral's treasures.
In 1539 2 men were employed for 9 days, 4 men
for 1 day, and 2 men for a further 15 days on the
destruction of St. Osmund's shrine, (fn. 413) the long
period of demolition suggesting that the jewels
were carefully removed. In 1549 the dean and
chapter received a royal order to send 2,000 marks'
worth of cathedral plate to the king's mint at
Bristol. (fn. 414) In Elizabeth I's early years there were
several further sales of jewels, ornaments, and
copes, 'for which there is now no use'. On one
occasion at least the buyers were the dean and
residentiary canons, only Chancellor Parry protesting at the action and refusing his share of the
spoils. (fn. 415) The extent of the cathedral's loss can
be measured by comparing the rich inventory
of jewels, images, vestments, and other treasures
made by Master Thomas Robertson, treasurer, in
1536, with an inventory of 1583, which consists
of a mere 29 items of little value. (fn. 416) Probably much
of the medieval stained glass was also removed at
this time, for several visitation injunctions of the
1560's and 1570's refer with dismay to the cathedral windows 'broken and open to the rain'. (fn. 417)

The most revolutionary changes were naturally
in the cathedral services and liturgy. The Use of
Salisbury was abolished and the English Prayer
Book took its place. In Edward VI's reign and
from Elizabeth's reign only two daily services were
held at the cathedral in the morning and evening,
with a monthly communion, in place of the seven
daily canonical hours, the daily High Mass, the
daily Mass of the Virgin, and the many chantry
masses and obits of the early 16th century. Yet
even here there were links with the past, for the
first Prayer Book of 1549 was partly compiled
from the Use of Salisbury. (fn. 418)

Under Bishop Shaxton, Salisbury's first reforming bishop, there was strong Catholic opposition
within the chapter, though from the first Cromwell, if not Shaxton, could command some support, and set himself to acquire more. In 1534
Richard Arche, a residentiary canon, wrote to the
queen's vice-chamberlain that Dr. Edward Powell
and Master John Baker, residentiaries, and others
should be discharged as proctors for Salisbury Diocese in the matter of the king's divorce, and the
dean and chapter told to elect others named by
the king; he himself and Master Thomas Bennet,
the bishop's vicar-general, would put Salisbury
Diocese on the king's side, but the others were
directly against his cause. (fn. 419) Powell was speaking,
preaching, and writing books against the king's
marriage; (fn. 420) by 1535 he was a prisoner in the
Tower, and was hanged, drawn, and quartered at
Smithfield in 1540 for denying the king's supremacy. (fn. 421) His canonical house in the close went in
1536 to Thomas Parker, a supporter of Cromwell,
who soon succeeded Edward Carne as chancellor. (fn. 422)
In 1536 too, Master Thomas Bennet gained the
precentorship on the death of Richard Dudley,
who, as the dean's locum tenens, had been resisting
Cromwell's claims at the cathedral. (fn. 423) Thus three
members of the residentiary chapter of seven were
now apparently ready to serve Cromwell, and their
influence may be seen in its decision of 1536 to
offer him the stewardship of its lands. (fn. 424) Yet Bishop
Shaxton still met with much resistance in his
efforts to enforce the royal injunctions. In 1537
Macdowell, the bishop's chaplain, reported that
the Pope's name was still in the cathedral missal
and the king's orders totally disregarded there.
Macdowell's preaching in the cathedral against
the Bishop of Rome roused such indignation that
deputations against him were sent to the king from
the close and city. When he fixed a copy of the
king's dispensation for Lent to the cathedral gate
it was immediately torn down, and none would
search for the culprits. Both he and the bishop
were accused of heresy. The resentment aroused
by Macdowell, 'an uncharitable and slanderous
Scottish friar', is shown by his excommunication
by Thomas Bennet, then chancellor of the diocese
and in frequent communication with Cromwell. (fn. 425)
Goodall, the bishop's under-bailiff of Salisbury,
complained bitterly of the enormities of the priests
in the close and city, who haunted ale-houses and
supported relics. The royal injunctions were said
to be kept neither by the precentor nor by the subdean, while scholars had even been rebuked for not
coming to evensong on a high even. (fn. 426) By 1539,
however, Goodall wrote to Cromwell that 'the
displeasures have accomplished something; now
the residentiaries not only preach, but have Bible
reading at dinner'. (fn. 427)

With the deprivation of Shaxton and the accession of the pliant Bishop Capon most canons seem
to have followed their bishop's example in accepting the royal commands. In Edward VI's reign
the Italian dean and king's Latin secretary, Peter
Vannes, was apparently replaced for a time by an
ardent reformer, Thomas Cole, who fled to Frankfort and Geneva in Mary's reign. (fn. 428) Mary restored
Vannes to the deanery and gave a prebend and
house in the close to Thomas Harding, the catholic
apologist and future opponent of Bishop Jewel. (fn. 429)
He and several other canons appointed in Mary's
reign were deprived in the opening years of Elizabeth's. (fn. 430) On the whole, however, it seems that
deprivations for conscience' sake were few at
Salisbury. An interesting and perhaps typical figure
is Master Thomas Bennet, (fn. 431) who first appeared at
Salisbury in 1524 as a chaplain of Wolsey, and
vicar-general for the absent Bishop Campeggio.
Apparently he suffered for a time after Wolsey's
fall, being replaced as chancellor of the diocese by
Richard Hilley, the cathedral treasurer. But by
1533 he had decided to support Cromwell and the
king's divorce, and was soon back in favour. From
1536 he took a leading part in chapter business as
precentor, acting frequently as locum tenens for the
dean. He could occasionally take an independent
line with Cromwell. In 1543, with Bishop Capon
and other commissionaries, he tried John Marbeck, the Windsor organist, for heresy, and sentenced him to burning, although the sentence was
not carried out. Yet Bennet seems to have had no
difficulty in continuing to live in the close as precentor in Mary's reign until his death in 1558.
Perhaps his chief interest in his later years lay in
providing for his many kinsmen and dependants.
He had a magnificent monument built for himself
in the cathedral before his death, and also took an
active interest in the cathedral choristers. (fn. 432) Bennet
was not apparently alone at Salisbury in adopting
a pliant attitude. The famous Vicar of Bray was
also a residentiary canon at Salisbury in the reigns
of Henry VIII and Edward VI, though he died
in 1551, and so the full story of his changes of
religion under Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth cannot be true. (fn. 433)

Nevertheless, although the chapter weathered
the storm, its moral strength was reduced by the
rapid changes. John Jewel, who visited it and
other cathedrals of the south-west as royal commissary in 1559 and as archbishop's commissary in
1560, wrote to his friend Peter Martyr in Geneva
that 'the cathedral churches have become dens of
robbers or more wicked'. (fn. 434) Again, on his first
visitation as bishop in 1562, Jewel found 'very
many things amiss, which we took grievously to
heart'. (fn. 435) Materially the cathedral was in a deplorable state, with its tower and glass, canonical
houses, and close wall approaching ruin. Nature
had been taking a hand in the destruction: in 1559
the spire was struck by lightning, and a fissure
extended 60 feet downwards from the top. The
attitude of the chapter to their bishop may be
illustrated by Jewel's remark that 'this happened
before I arrived in Salisbury, or it would have been
ascribed to my coming'. (fn. 436) The spiritual decline
and lack of discipline among all ranks of the cathedral clergy seems to have been almost as marked
as the material destruction. However, the canons
consented to the extension of his visitation for
more than the five days allowed by the composition
of 1392, and finally thanked the bishop for his
work and agreed to the statutes he proposed. (fn. 437)
These attempted to enforce that all four dignitaries should be continually resident (only one dignitary, the chancellor, was resident in 1562), and
provide the customary hospitality and 'feedings'
for the lesser cathedral clergy; that the prebendaries should come into residence for a term or pay
their fifths for non-residence, and that the individual canons should be responsible for repairing
their houses in the close. (fn. 438) During the next two
years the bishop was several times in chapter
examining the cases of canons whom he had pronounced contumacious for not appearing at his
visitation. Eventually at least six were deprived of
their prebends for simony, infamy, or contempt
of the cathedral statutes, while Leonard Bilson,
a residentiary, remained in prison for practising
magic. (fn. 439)

Foremost among the methods adopted by the
Elizabethan bishops to improve the state of their
chapter was regular visitation. Detailed inquiries
were made every seven years; in addition the cathedral was subjected to several metropolitical visitations. At first there was little improvement. Bishop
Jewel's second visitation of 1568 revealed serious
charges of adultery and incontinence against both
canons and vicars as well as much fighting, drinking, and quarrelling among the vicars; some clergy
did not attend communion as often as three times
a year; the Archdeacon of Wiltshire was said to
have two wives; Canon Robert Hooper had been
preaching unsound doctrine (though more, it was
thought, from inexperience than malice), and
Canon John Coleshill was neglecting his duty to
dispense hospitality. (fn. 440) As time went on the constant episcopal supervision may have had some
effect, but progress was very slow. From 1563 the
deans, at least, were more frequently resident;
several were leading theologians, and their competence is suggested by the fact that until 1604 all
were fairly rapidly promoted to bishoprics. (fn. 441) But
Bishop Jewel's attempt to increase the number of
residentiaries and to encourage the prebendaries to
come into residence for a short term each year
failed completely. An experiment of setting aside
Braybrook House in the close as a residential
college for the prebendaries ended in a scandal in
1564. (fn. 442) The close chapter was now strongly opposed to any increase in the number of residentiaries; and the customary and, later, statutory
limitation to seven or six with the dean in the late
16th and early 17th centuries was clearly due to
its determination to share the rising profits of
residence with as few canons as possible. On the
other hand, there was keen competition among the
prebendaries for the profitable residentiary places.
The bishop kept the right to collate to the residentiary house of Leadenhall, and so to confer one
residentiary place; but for the other places royal
and magnate influence was sought to put pressure
on the close chapter at elections, so that in effect
appointments of residentiaries was soon being made
by the Crown. By the end of the 16th century a
system of pre-election was in full force. In 1585
William Zouch, the precentor, was pre-elected by
the close chapter into the fifth vacant residentiary's place next ensuing. (fn. 443) Thus dignitaries other
than the dean, who-attempted to obey the ancient
statutes and Bishop Jewel's express order for their
continuous residence, would normally for long
periods be forced to reside at their own expense
without sharing any of the profits of residence and
without being admitted to the residentiary chapter
or given a canonical house. At the same time the
canons' obligations of residence were cut down.
Whereas Bishop Mortival's statutes of 1319 had
allowed twelve days' absence a quarter to full
residentiaries, ordinances of 1571 and 1589 declared that 40 days' residence a quarter would
henceforth be sufficient for receiving full commons. (fn. 444)

In other ways, however, the bishops achieved
some slight success in their efforts to bring the
non-resident canons, or, as they were now more
usually called, 'prebendaries', into closer connexion with the cathedral. Bishop Jewel insisted
that the Pentecostal chapters ordered by the royal
injunctions of 1559 should be held annually. All
the prebendaries were summoned to these chapters, which continued throughout Whitsun week
and gave opportunities for discussion of cathedral
business and for grants of taxation from the prebends, particularly for the repair of the fabric. The
first was in 1560 when Bishop Jewel attended in
person as a prebendary. In 1561, in his absence,
no chapter was summoned, but in 1562 he continued his visitation of the cathedral in Whitsun
week, requiring the prebendaries to attend. (fn. 445) From
this time Pentecostal chapters were celebrated fairly
regularly during the rest of the 16th century and
at intervals in the 17th century up to about 1670.
Not all the prebendaries attended, but the custom
was established, as with the general chapters of
the Middle Ages, that absent prebendaries should at
least send proxies. A further method of giving the
prebendaries some share and responsibility in cathedral work was by preaching turns, requiring every
prebendary to preach one sermon a year in the
cathedral. The first known rota of preaching turns,
drawn up in the reign of Edward VI or Mary, was
revised on Bishop Jewel's initiative at the first
Pentecostal chapter in 1560, (fn. 446) and vigorous efforts
were made to enforce it throughout the rest of
the 16th and in the 17th centuries. The arrangement that absent prebendaries might pay a deputy
to preach their sermons had, however, to be
accepted.

Henceforth the cathedral clergy were officially
encouraged to have more contacts with the diocese
and city. The canons were more insistently required to provide sermons and hospitality at the
churches belonging to their prebends and common
fund, as well as at the cathedral, (fn. 447) where greater
emphasis on preaching took the place of the chancellor's theological lectures, and the lecturer disappeared. (fn. 448) High fixed seats were erected in the
body of the church for the mayor and corporation,
who now attended the Sunday services and sermons with their wives. (fn. 449) These cumbersome seats
caused many disputes about precedence, in which
the wives of the cathedral clergy were also involved, and in 1634 Archbishop Laud ordered
their removal; for the future only movable seats
were to be used. (fn. 450) Social changes were taking place
in the close, for which the canons' wives were
largely responsible. Elizabeth I had at first disapproved of wives of the clergy living in the cathedral close, but had been unable to prevent it. By
James I's reign they had an established position,
and Dean Gordon's French wife, Dame Geneviéve, who was both intelligent and determined,
emerged as a dominant figure. Her letters to
Secretary Nicholas throw interesting light on life
in the close. (fn. 451) Salisbury became a centre of fashion
when the Stuart kings came to stay with their
courts, lodging in the close. (fn. 452)

A few signs of a gradual revival in cathedral life
may be noticed. There was a big improvement in
the cathedral fabric. Much money was spent on it
in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, so that
by 1634 it could be said: 'no fault is found with
the fabric save the pavement and cloisters and some
other small defects'. (fn. 453) The Gorges memorial, built
in the cathedral about this time to commemorate
Sir Thomas Gorges and his Swedish wife, suggests
a revival of interest in art. The muniments which,
on Bishop Jewel's accession, were in a state of
decay and complete disorder, were in 1607 and
1634 kept duly under lock and key and were
claimed to be safe at least from vermin and bad
weather. (fn. 454) There is less evidence for interest in
the library. It apparently had few manuscripts of
sufficient interest to tempt collectors like Archbishop Parker or Sir Robert Cotton. Bishop Jewel
was able to send only one book in Old English to
Parker, saying he had 'ransacked our poore library
to find it'. (fn. 455) Bishop Guest gave many printed
books and Dean Gordon in the early 17th century
also left books; (fn. 456) but the dean and chapter were
careless custodians. A number of their more interesting medieval manuscripts found their way to
Oxford at this time. (fn. 457) There were some learned
canons and prebendaries. Dean Gordon was a
theologian, a scholar of Greek, Hebrew, and
oriental languages, and a writer in verse and prose;
two prebendaries, Richard Hooker, author of
the Ecclesiastical Polity, who died in 1600, and
Thomas Fuller, the church historian, a prebendary from 1631, made outstanding contributions
to the thought and history of the English Church;
William Camden, author of the Britannia, was
a prebendary from 1589 to 1624. (fn. 458) Some able
masters were appointed to the cathedral grammar
school, which had been refounded in the close by
about 1540, apparently mainly for the choristers'
benefit. (fn. 459) The boys, however, apparently suffered
increasing ill treatment and neglect in their common house under their sub-master. (fn. 460) Their
revenues fell in value; about 1620 they ceased
to live in common; in 1629 their numbers were
permanently limited to six, and the chapter decided that for the future they should be paid
salaries of £4 or £3 a year each to support themselves. (fn. 461) When the Stuart kings visited the city
additional choristers had to be brought from
Windsor to augment the choir, (fn. 462) This neglect of
the cathedral choristers is surprising, because there
was a genuine love of church music in Salisbury at
this time, and much interest in its development.
The cathedral had some fine composers and musicians among its organists and lay vicars, including
the tempestuous John Farrant who attempted to
murder Dean Bridges in his study, and, on failing
to do so, returned to finish singing the anthem in
choir, and the Lawes family in the early 17th
century. (fn. 463) The Puritans condemned their music
for being too formal and curious, but George Herbert, poet and parish priest of Bemerton, loved it
and found inspiration in his visits to the cathedral
in the early 1630's. (fn. 464)

Such contrasts are typical of the growing diversity in cathedral life under the early Stuarts, when
there was both piety, learning, and striving for
order and discipline, along with lack of restraint,
negligence, and worldliness. At the same time
there were the complications of the widely differing religious views. The citizens of Salisbury were
largely Puritan; the bishops conciliatory to them;
the deans increasingly inclined to the High Church
party, while among the canons were colourful and
clashing personalities, some unattractive, a few
devout and efficient.

A change from the attitude to church ceremonies of the Elizabethan clergy possibly began in
Dean Gordon's time. Although a Scot who had
been in the service of Protestant leaders in France,
he came so far from his earlier views when preaching before James I in 1605 as to vindicate the use
of cross, cap, and surplice. (fn. 465) In 1607 the order of
1604 for wearing surplices and hoods was thought
to be observed at Salisbury, though the canons
agreed that copes were not yet worn at communion. (fn. 466) The medieval copes had long since been
sold or used up as pulpit cloths or cushions, while
the ancient payments of cope money by the canons
had been diverted to the fabric fund. (fn. 467) About the
same time large sums were spent on enlarging and
repairing the organ. (fn. 468) Some gifts of plate and ornaments were made to the cathedral treasury; the
inventory of 1624-5 shows that it was then far
more adequately supplied with plate than in 1583
or 1601. (fn. 469) The cathedral bells were repaired. (fn. 470)
In Bishop Davenant's time the different points of
view within the church became apparent. The
deans in particular asserted their independence of
the bishop and took the opposite side in constitutional and religious controversies in cathedral and
city. These differences suggest that even after the
Reformation Salisbury dean and chapter had retained greater independence of their bishop than
other English chapters. Dean Bowle strenuously
opposed the bishop's claim to sit in chapter and
take part in the election of a music teacher of
the choristers. (fn. 471) The result was a disputed election, the bishop and three canons voting for John
Holmes, son of the former master, the dean and
the three other canons for Giles Tompkins, organist of King's College, Cambridge. Appeals to the
archbishop and king followed. Eventually the
king decided in favour of the dean's party, though,
its victory was made to appear less decisive by the
appointment of Tompkins by the king 'by way of
provision'. (fn. 472) Dean Mason, Dean Bowle's successor, and tutor to Prince Charles, was an open
supporter of Laud against the bishop. Their views
clashed in 1633 over the public submission of
Henry Sherfield, Recorder of Salisbury, for destroying a stained glass window in St. Edmund's
Church. Dean Mason and Laud were victorious,
achieving a full public submission. (fn. 473)

In another quarrel about this time, over the
admission by royal letters of Dr. Humphrey
Henchman, the precentor, as a supernumerary
residentiary at the cathedral, Dean Mason and
Bishop Davenant were, however, united against a
majority of the chapter. This quarrel throws light
on the divisions, personalities, and motives within
the chapter. Henchman was a kinsman of Bishop
Williams of Lincoln, (fn. 474) who had spent one year as
Dean of Salisbury in 1620-1 while waiting to be
transferred to the deanery of Westminster. From
there his promotion was rapid, but he continued
to exercise a strong influence over Salisbury chapter in opposition to the rising influence of Laud.
By 1633, it was claimed that Bishop Davenant,
Edward Thornburgh, a residentiary canon, and
Henchman, the precentor, all owed their appointments to him, while he could on occasion command the vote in chapter of Canon Giles Thornburgh, an elder kinsman of Edward. (fn. 475) The bishops
of Lincoln and Salisbury were said to 'drive in one
yoke', and it seemed to Dr. Matthew Nicholas, a
younger brother of Secretary Nicholas and a preelected residentiary, that the best way of preventing
Henchman from being admitted as a residentiary
before him was to play on Dean Mason's fears that
Laud, then Bishop of London, would be angry
with him for doing so much for a kinsman of the
Bishop of Lincoln. (fn. 476) The dean, however, was
not intimidated, while Bishop Davenant maintained that the Bishop of London was intelligent
and would understand the situation at Salisbury.
Henchman was a 'true resident' and of greater
service to the church than any of the other canons.
He had been precentor for ten years; had performed all the duties of the office, including those
of residence and hospitality, without ever being
admitted as a residentiary or receiving any profits
of residence. (fn. 477) The attitude of the rest of the
chapter seems to have been dictated partly by their
anxiety not to offend powerful outside influences,
partly by their desire not to share the profits of
residence among eight instead of seven residentiaries. (fn. 478) By appealing to these last motives
the two pre-elected residentiaries, Dr. Matthew
Nicholas and Dr. Thomas Mason, whose claims
to residentiary places were prejudiced by Henchman's admission, detached the two Thornburghs
from their allegiance to Bishop Williams, and
persuaded them with two other residentiaries to
petition the king and Laud for the repeal of the
royal letters. (fn. 479) However, their opposition was not
very convincing, especially as they had already
accepted Henchman's large entrance fee for residence and divided it up among themselves. (fn. 480) Early
in 1634 the king on Laud's advice ruled that
Henchman was to continue as a supernumerary
residentiary, but with single commons like the
other residentiaries, not with the double commons
anciently due to dignitaries. Thomas Mason and
Matthew Nicholas were to have the next two
vacant residentiary places. After this the next
vacant residentiary place was not to be filled, and
the number of residentiaries was to be permanently
reduced to six with the dean. There were to be no
more pre-elections, and dignitaries were to be as
capable as others of being chosen as residentiaries. (fn. 481)
From this time until the Cathedrals Act of 1840
the number of residentiaries remained fixed by
royal ordinance at six with the dean, and the
dignitaries permanently lost their claim to double
commons.

In the same year Archbishop Laud's visitation
of the cathedral revealed a complete lack of system
and some scandals in the practice of residence. The
canons confessed that they did not know what the
times of their residence should be. 'We do not
dispense each other, but everyone keeps residence
at his own discretion and yet receives all profits as
if continually resident.' They thought that sometimes all the residentiaries were absent from the
services, but never all absent from their houses,
and that all were not absent from the church for
many weeks together. Only old Canon Barnston,
Canon Henchman, and, before he was called away
on royal service, Dean Mason, were not severely
criticized for their church attendances and only
these three were said to be laudable in hospitality.
By others neglect of hospitality was freely admitted. Canon Lee declared that he was too poor
to be hospitable, and informed the archbishop's
commissary that other canons were very sparing
in hospitality. Edward Thornburgh was further
accused by Lee of flying into violent passions as a
result of intemperate eating and drinking, and Osborne of using bad language. The most serious
charge was brought against Canon Seward by
Henchman and Lee. He was said to have separated a kinswoman from her husband, to have had
the husband put in prison, and to be keeping her
at his house in the close in the greatest luxury.
Lee himself presented a long and rambling account
of his claims to precedence and of his grievances. (fn. 482)
The reasons for Bishop Davenant's and Dean
Mason's insistence on the admission of Henchman
as a supernumerary member of such a chapter are
self-evident, especially since the dean was likely to
be absent for long periods. As a result of the visitation a new statute for residence, according to the
canons of the Church of England of 1604, was
drawn up by the chapter and confirmed by the
king. In future two canons were to be required
to keep residence and open house in the close in
each quarter of the year, and to be present daily
at morning and evening prayers; on 60 of the 90
days their personal attendance at the services was
necessary under pain of a 5s. fine for every absence;
on the remaining 30 days a substitute was allowed,
so long as he was a residentiary canon. A rota of
residence was drawn up accordingly. (fn. 483) Thus a
three-monthly residence, similar in some ways to
the plan of Richard Poore in the early 13th century, was finally accepted under outside pressure
and probably for the first time by the whole residentiary chapter at Salisbury, though this now consisted of only seven or eight canons in place of the
52 for whom Poore had legislated. The gradual
abandonment by the residentiaries of the 16th and
17th centuries of the long annual residence customary in the 14th and 15th centuries was not due
solely to their laziness and neglect of duty. It
was also a necessary result of the orders of the
post-Reformation church for their personal residence and hospitality at their prebendal and other
churches in the diocese for most of the year. The
canons of the Church of England of 1604 specifically required this, allowing to cathedral canons
only three months' absence at their cathedral; and
Archbishop Laud made searching inquiries at his
visitation about its observance. (fn. 484) Though most of
the canons had been remiss in this as in their other
duties, Barnston and Henchman at least were said
to have been assiduous in preaching and hospitality
at their churches in the diocese. (fn. 485) The statute of
1635 now regulated the position at the cathedral, where changes obviously had to be made if
the rules for the churches of the prebends and the
common fund were to be observed. Much of the
disorder in the cathedral in the years before 1635
was probably due to each canon making his own
rules to meet conditions for which the ancient
statutes did not provide. After 1635 discipline
seems to have been tightened up. The new dean
was Dr. Richard Baylie, husband of a niece of
Archbishop Laud, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford
University and President of St. John's College.
He spent much of his time in Oxford, but dispensed lavish hospitality 'like a cardinal' on his
visits to Salisbury. (fn. 486) In his absence the real power
in the close lay with Henchman. Matthew
Nicholas, who was admitted as a residentiary in
1637, wrote in the following year, 'The order
about residence has long been put into execution.
Two residents are present in each quarter and
attend constantly at the services.... Dr. Henchman is now the only visible man in our church.' (fn. 487)

The history of the vicars choral in the 40 years
preceding the outbreak of the Civil War faithfully
reflects the history of their masters, the residentiary canons. The visitations of 1607 and 1634
reveal many examples of negligence and disorder
among the choral and lay vicars, as among the
canons. They were irregular in their attendances
at the church services. The choir was noisy because
the vergers did not stop the laity from tramping up
and down and talking in the church in service
time, and the vicars broke the rule about talking
in choir. Some complaints were made about the
vicars' singing. In addition the canons maintained
in 1607 that there were a few drunkards, haunters
of taverns, and sowers of dissension among them.
The vicars, like the choristers, ceased to live a
common life in their hall of residence about 1620. (fn. 488)
This was a natural development, now that most
vicars were married. More serious were the dissensions which arose between the choral and lay
vicars. The small corporation of six vicars choral
opposed any increase in its own numbers and any
proposals for sharing its increased revenues with
the lay vicars. While poverty had been a main
reason for the rapid fall in the vicars' numbers in
the late 15th and 16th centuries, the further limitation of their numbers in the early 17th century
was due, as with the canons' numbers, to the desire
of the small established body to keep the profits of
their steadily rising revenues for themselves. As a
result, the cathedral had much difficulty in attracting good basses and counter tenors to serve as lay
vicars. In 1604 the brilliant Thomas Lawes resigned because of his small salary. (fn. 489) This caused
the chapter to intervene. In 1605 it insisted that
the vicars choral must pay £12 a year each to lay
vicars with bass voices instead of the normal
£8 13s. 4d. and that for the future at least three
and if possible four laymen were to be basses or
counter tenors. As a concession to the vicars
choral, however, it agreed that the lay vicars
might temporarily be reduced from eight to seven,
so that the eighth layman's salary might be divided
between the two basses. (fn. 490) Thomas Lawes was then
readmitted as a lay vicar without loss of seniority,
but the struggle of the lay vicars against the vicars
choral continued and eventually came before the
bishop and archbishop. The trouble lay largely in
the choral vicars' administration of their property.
The value of their lands was increasing, but they
refused to raise the old medieval rents, preferring
to charge large fines for the renewal of leases,
which they at once shared out amongst themselves.
Thus their regular annual income remained
roughly the same as in 1535, and they declared
that this alone could be drawn upon for payment
of the lay vicars' stipends, as well as for their own
commons and dividends. Shortly before 1615 the
archbishop inhibited them from renewing any
more leases until an order had been made. (fn. 491) In
1624 an agreement was drawn up by which the
vicars choral promised not to renew any more
leases until they had completely run out. Then
the property was to be leased for one, two, or three
lives at improved rents. Two-thirds of the increased rents were to go to the vicars choral and
one-third to the lay vicars. In return the chapter
agreed that the lay vicars should remain at seven
until an eighth layman could be paid a sufficient
stipend out of the increases; that all fines for renewal of leases should still belong to the vicars
choral only; and that the lay vicars' stipends should
not exceed £20 a year. (fn. 492) By 1644 a new lease of
Laverstock rectory for three lives raised the annual
rent from £15 to about £85, which according to
the Parliamentary Survey of 1649 was about £130
a year less than its actual value, and the lay vicars
pressed for increased stipends. (fn. 493) After the Restoration all seven received £20 a year but the eighth
was never reappointed.

A similar state of affairs prevailed on the chapter's estates. Here there was no further loss of
property, save the annexation of Shipton prebend
to the Regius Chair of Civil Law at Oxford by
Act of Parliament in 1617. (fn. 494) But in the late 16th
and early 17th centuries there was a steady rise in
the value of the property, and, like the vicars, the
canons normally refused to lease their lands at
rents corresponding to the improved value. The
changed situation can best be seen in the Parliamentary Survey of the chapter's lands made in
1649-50, which gives not only the reserved rents
of the lands and churches and their assessment for
taxation, but also the actual value. For 40 prebends the total assessment for taxation was only
£1,400 6s. 8d. a year and in all cases corresponded
to the assessment in the Valor Ecclesiasticus. The
reserved rents were usually the same or very
slightly higher than the taxation value. But the
gross annual value was often eight to ten times as
great. Thus the gross value of the small prebend
of Alton Australis had risen to about £197 a year,
although the annual rent paid by its farmer was
only £20, and its taxation £19 10s. The gross
value of the 'golden' prebend of Teignton Regis
was about £654, its rent £74 6s. 8d., and its
taxation £63 13s. 4d. In the case of the dignitaries' estates the reserved rents paid to the chancellor and treasurer had been raised from £56 and
£101 in 1535 to £86 and £174 respectively, while
their gross values were given as £559 and £1,197. (fn. 495)
The position on the estates of the deanery, precentorship, and common fund was similar. The
commissioners frequently remarked that a church
or estate was worth £75, £130, or, in the case of
Bishop's Cannings, as much as £681 a year more
than the annual rent paid by the farmer. (fn. 496) This
was due to the increasingly large fines for renewal
of leases, some of which, amounting to over
£1,000, can be traced in the chapter lease books
which are extant from 1608. In spite of the royal
injunctions that leases should not be granted for
more than 21 years, most of the larger estates and
churches were now leased for three lives. In
addition to the fines the residentiaries also had the
patronage of the churches belonging to the common fund. These advowsons now passed to each
residentiary in order of seniority, (fn. 497) and were occasionally sold by them, though the sale of the
advowson of Britford church for £70 by Canon
Edward Thornburgh in 1634 raised such an outcry against simony that it had to be cancelled
before payment was made. (fn. 498)

THE CIVIL WAR

The period of the Civil War
and the Commonwealth saw the
only complete break in the chapter's history, when the whole
institutional structure and anglican form of worship was swept away and a new Presbyterian
system established in its place at the cathedral.
It is difficult to discover how long the chapter
continued to function. The abolition of deans,
chapters, vicars choral, and choristers was made
law in 1648, and was followed in 1649 by the Act
for the Sale of Deans' and Chapters' Lands. (fn. 499) Many
individual canons and prebendaries, however, were
ejected long before this under the parliamentary
order of 1643 which required the sequestration
of the property and benefices of all those who
had helped to raise arms against Parliament. No
entries were made in the chapter act books between 28 November 1642 and 13 September
1660, but the fabric accounts continued into 1643
and included payments to workmen for taking
down the organ. The clerk of the works also paid
money to the watch at the close gate and to a watch
at the church porch during the early fighting in
Salisbury. (fn. 500) Records of the dean's court are extant
as late as 1645, (fn. 501) and new prebendaries were appointed in the place of those who had died in
1643, 1644, and 1645, though they were reinstalled in 1660 to safeguard them from charges
that their appointments were illegal. (fn. 502) As early as
1641 a puritan, John Strickland, later a member
of the Westminster Assembly, was elected as
minister by the vestry of the chapter's church of
St. Edmund, Salisbury, although in his absence in
London Thomas Mason, a residentiary canon,
apparently officiated, preached against Parliament,
and publicly prayed for the success of the royalist
forces. Mason seems to have remained in charge
at the cathedral for some years. When the parliamentary forces were in Salisbury, probably in
1644-5, he was said never to have preached, but
to have kept the church shut. In July 1646 he
was accused before the County Committee of
Wiltshire of receiving rents due to the dean and
chapter, disposing of them as he pleased, and of
sending £20 to Dean Bailey in Oxford. He denied
on oath that he had the chapter rent-roll, but, when
pressed, produced it the next day. He refused to
take the Covenant, saying he would stand for the
Prayer Book while he lived. (fn. 503) After 1646 there is
little evidence that the chapter had any authority
at the cathedral or in its city churches, though
Canon Matthew Nicholas, most of the choral and
lay vicars, the schoolmaster, and two vergers were
apparently in possession of their houses in the close
in 1649-50 when the Parliamentary Survey of the
close was made. (fn. 504) In 1646 another puritan member
of the Westminster Assembly, Dr. John Conant,
whom the chapter had refused in 1642, was appointed to its church of St. Thomas, Salisbury; a
third, Stanley Gower, to its church of St. Martin,
Salisbury, in 1648; and in July 1648 Dr. Faithful
Tate became Presbyterian minister at the cathedral with a salary of £150 a year and Canon
Mason's house of Leadenhall in the close for
his residence. (fn. 505) In 1649 it was declared that he
'preacheth twice in the cathedral every Lord's
Day, and alone supplieth the ministeriall office
there'. It was presented as convenient that 'Our
Ladye church be made a parish churche'. (fn. 506) Soon
after the Survey the city corporation decided to
buy four canonical houses in the close for £800 as
permanent residences for the four Presbyterian
ministers of the city, in the hope that the purchase money would eventually be raised by the
parishioners. (fn. 507) Other sales of the chapter's property within and outside the close were made.
The city magistrates assumed authority over the
close, and in 1656 Cromwell's charter to the
mayor and corporation gave them full rights of
jurisdiction over the former liberty of the close
with the patronage of the dean and chapter's
hospital of St. Nicholas by Harnham Bridge which
they had long coveted. (fn. 508)

The Presbyterian system probably did not take
very firm root at Salisbury, particularly at the
cathedral and in the close. Faithful Tate had left
Salisbury by 1650. The only successor to him who
has been traced was a T. Rashleigh, minister at the
cathedral about 1658-9. (fn. 509)

The cathedral itself seems to have suffered less
damage than almost any other cathedral in the
country. In 1644 it was plundered by a parliamentary force, and its plate and vestments sent
to London to be shown before the House of
Commons, but the plate was soon restored. (fn. 510) The
destruction of the images on the west front of the
cathedral and of what remained of the medieval
stained glass has sometimes been attributed to this
period, but the images and much of the glass were
more probably destroyed in Edward VI's reign,
while Wyatt in the 18th century was probably
responsible for the removal of most of the remaining glass. (fn. 511) The heaviest fighting in the city was in
1644-5, when the parliamentary leader, Ludlow,
entrenched himself in the close and was attacked
there by a royalist force. He had to retire on
Harnham, leaving his prisoners and a small body to
defend the belfry. The royalists then set fire to the
door of the belfry and smoked the defenders out.
Further damage was done later by Dutch prisoners
in the cloisters. In 1653 the Mayor of Salisbury
wrote to the government asking for their removal;
he said they had already done much damage to the
cloister pillars and to the windows of the library. (fn. 512)
Evidently the city authorities, having assumed
jurisdiction over the cathedral, were now anxious
to protect it. The cathedral apparently owed its
remarkable preservation throughout the period
largely to the generosity and loyalty of local gentry,
possibly members of the Hyde family, who secretly
employed workmen to keep it in repair. Walter
Pope, the friend and biographer of Bishop Seth
Ward, tells the story of how, when asked who paid
them, the workmen answered, 'They who employ
us will pay us; trouble not yourselves to inquire
who they are; whosoever they be, they desire not
to have their names known.' (fn. 513) The bishop's palace,
however, and the canonical houses suffered greater
damage and dilapidations than the cathedral.

A few glimpses may be caught of the doings of
some of the ejected cathedral clergy during these
years. The bishop, Brian Duppa, Prince Charles's
tutor, stayed with Charles I during his imprisonment, and afterwards lived in retirement at Richmond (Surr.), where he continued to baptize children according to the rites of the Church, of England. Of the residentiary canons, four died; (fn. 514) and
the remaining three, Dean Bailey, Humphrey
Henchman, and Matthew Nicholas, all seem to
have joined the royal army and had their estates
and benefices sequestrated. Later, on the surrender
of the royalist garrisons, they were able to enjoy
the advantages of compounding for their private
estates at the low fine of a tenth without taking the
oath to the Covenant, though Matthew Nicholas
refused to do this until the king's execution.
Henchman was apparently treated generously by
the Dorset Committee for Compounding, which
in April 1648 forbade any further sequestration
of his real estate and allowed him to have its
profits since 1646. By 1649 he was again living
in the close at Salisbury, though not in his canonical house. In 1651 he helped Prince Charles to
escape after the battle of Worcester. (fn. 515) Of the
prebendaries, many also joined the royalist armies
and were taken prisoner at the surrender of the
garrisons at Oxford, Dartmouth, and Arundel.
Some of the richer ones then compounded for their
private estates, while the wives of the others were
usually granted fifths from the incomes of their
former benefices. Many wives undoubtedly suffered; others showed that they could look after
themselves. After their ejections the prebendaries
took different ways. Two, Richard Steward, Dean
of St. Paul's and prebendary of Alton Borealis, and
John Earle, Chancellor of Salisbury, joined the
exiles in Paris. (fn. 516) Some settled down in country
retreats or at Salisbury, but continued secretly to
correspond with members of the royalist party or
to use the Prayer Book. Others wholly or partially
conformed and so managed to keep one of their
livings. Thomas Fuller, the historian, after years
of deprivation, submitted to seeking the approval
of Cromwell's Board of Triers and gained admission to a living in Middlesex. Some found opportunities for study and produced notable books, but
those without private means had a hard struggle to
exist. John Gregory, the historian of the boybishops at Salisbury, whom Wood called 'the
miracle of his age for critical and curious learning', died in poverty and obscurity near Oxford. (fn. 517)
Nothing is known of the cathedral choristers
throughout the period, although their grammar
master continued to teach in the close. Several
vicars choral and lay vicars received payments
from the Trustees for the Maintenance of Ministers in 1658 and 1659, though they had earlier
taken part in the fighting against Parliament. (fn. 518)

THE RESTORATION

In 1660 the three surviving members of the residentiary chapter, Dean Bailey,
Precentor Henchman, and
Matthew Nicholas, now Dean of St. Paul's, set
about restoring the broken institutions, worship,
and discipline at the cathedral and of re-integrating
their property. They held their first formal meeting with the larger chapter on 13 September, but
were joined by only four prebendaries: John Earle
the chancellor, John Ryves, Archdeacon of Berkshire, Alexander Hyde, and John Chappell. (fn. 519) The
most immediate need was to fill the many vacancies. On the first day five new prebendaries were
installed and by 22 September eighteen in all.
Four new residentiaries were elected, including
the chancellor, John Earle, Alexander Hyde, and
two of the newly appointed prebendaries. A succentor was installed; vicars choral, lay vicars, and
choristers were admitted. (fn. 520) Then, on 4 October,
Henchman was elected and installed as bishop by
royal nomination, following Bishop Duppa's translation to Winchester; (fn. 521) Thomas Hyde, Bishop
Duppa's vicar-general and official, took Henchman's place in the residentiary chapter, and a third
member of the Hyde family, Richard, became a
prebendary and sub-dean. (fn. 522) Dean Bailey alone
remained to preside over his reconstituted chapter
until his death in 1667. In 1662 he wrote to the
Earl of Clarendon that he had just returned from
Salisbury to Oxford, having at Salisbury 'contracted the work of some weeks (in former times)
into two days, owing to the sedulity of my brethren'. (fn. 523)

The restoration chapter seems to have been
active and conscientious, working at first in harmony with both its bishops and deans. The first
three bishops, Henchman, John Earle, and Alexander Hyde, who followed each other in quick
succession, were all former members of the residentiary chapter and understood its problems;
Henchman especially gave vigorous leadership.
The fourth, Seth Ward, who was translated from
Exeter in 1667, was one of the outstanding bishops
of his time, a distinguished scientist and foundation
member of the Royal Society. He took an active
interest in the cathedral fabric and services, and
contributed generously to paving the cloister and
choir and to the new choir stalls. In 1668-9, when
there was anxiety about the spire, he persuaded his
friend, Sir Christopher Wren, to survey the cathedral and advise the chapter on how to strengthen
it. He regularly attended the cathedral services
twice daily with his household whenever he was
in Salisbury; and so long as Ralph Brideoak, who
had succeeded Richard Bailey as dean, remained
there, his frequent presence and advice brought no
conflict with the dean and chapter. (fn. 524) Episcopal
visitations of the cathedral were made in 1661 by
Bishop Henchman and in 1671 by Bishop Ward. (fn. 525)
They suggest that the recovery, leasing, and repair
of its property were among the main problems
occupying the chapter's attention. Statutes published by Bishop Henchman after his visitation laid
down that all leases of the prebends and other property must be approved by the bishop, dean, and
chapter; that all chancels of churches and other
buildings belonging to the chapter must be repaired
within two years; that all houses in the close must
be inspected annually and repaired within fifteen
months; that a register of the customs, leases, and
extents of all the prebends and common estates
must be compiled and kept for reference in the
cathedral muniment room. (fn. 526) By 1671 much progress had been made. Most of the property was
apparently recovered fairly quickly. Pentecostal
chapters had been reinstituted and were attended
by large numbers of prebendaries who brought the
leases and terriers of their prebends for registration. (fn. 527) In 1671 all the common property was in
good repair, save the parsonage house at Bramshaw
which had been burnt in the time of troubles. (fn. 528)
All the fines from the fabric lands, amounting to
£4,200, were spent on repairs of the cathedral
fabric, to which the prebendaries also contributed
£500 by a tax on their prebendal incomes. The
repair and rebuilding of the houses in the close were
vigorously undertaken. By 1670 £475 had been
spent on the deanery and £775 on three other
canonical houses. (fn. 529) Within 50 years or so the
appearance of the close was largely transformed by
the new style of domestic architecture. Much
time and care was spent by the chancellor, Richard
Drake, in arranging, cataloguing, indexing, and
in many cases laboriously copying out the muniments. (fn. 530) This was partly to meet the need for
complete titles of the recovered property; partly
because of his genuine interest in the cathedral's
history and antiquities. The communar's accounts
were kept with exemplary care in book form, with
a single annual account in place of the four quarterly rolls. Drake prefaced his account of 1668-9
by Latin verses of his own composition, describing
the traditional way in which the accounts were
made up and the profits divided. (fn. 531) Much more
attention was also paid to the library. A catalogue
of the manuscripts was made soon after 1670, and
since then there have been few losses. (fn. 532)

Worship and discipline at the cathedral seem to
have been of a high standard compared with that
of the 1630's. Drake, as the dean's locum tenens,
insisted that vicars who wished to be absent from
either of the two daily services must always ask
leave and offer a reasonable excuse. (fn. 533) Sermons
were frequent. A revised list of preaching turns
was drawn up and enforced, and, at least while the
court lived at Salisbury during the plague of 1665,
two sermons a day were preached on Sundays, by
the prebendaries in the presbytery in the morning,
and by the residentiaries in the nave in the afternoon. In 1670 when Archbishop Sheldon sent his
circular letter to cathedrals requiring the canons to
celebrate communion on Sundays and holy days in
person and not to leave it to their vicars, the dean
and chapter replied that they had already begun to
do so; the 52 Sundays of the year were divided up
among the six residentiaries, the four dignitaries,
the sub-dean, and the succentor, who were to
officiate in turn. (fn. 534) Much money was spent on the
organ, and a brilliant though temperamental
organist, Michael Wise, succeeded Giles Tompkins in 1668. (fn. 535) The number of choristers was
increased from six to seven. After a brief experiment of boarding them with Wise, the system of
salaries was reinstituted, but on a higher scale than
before the war. (fn. 536) In 1673 Edward Hardwick, a
vicar choral, became head master of the grammar
school in the close, and the great days of the school
began. (fn. 537) Cope money was reinstituted and the
proceeds ordered to be applied to the adornment
of the church. (fn. 538) The chapter bought more plate
for the altar, and gifts were received. The
treasurer's inventory of 1684 shows a great improvement on that of 1671, when complaints were
made that the church was but meanly provided
with plate. (fn. 539) Walter Pope declared that in the early
years of Seth Ward's episcopate the cathedral services were celebrated with 'exemplary piety, admirable decency, and celestial music', and that the
church was kept so clean that it would be difficult
to find sufficient dust to blot the superscription of
a letter. (fn. 540)

After his visitation Bishop Ward attempted to
deal with the anomaly by which all four dignitaries
were bound by ancient statutes to 'continuous'
residence, whilst they Were not all admitted to the
residentiary chapter. He declared that in future
all four dignitaries must keep residence for three
months a year, each being responsible for a quarter
of the year, and, if absent, must pay a fine of £5 a
month. As Dean Pierce soon pointed out, this
brought down the dignitaries' residence to 'none
at all' on payment of £15 a year. (fn. 541) It would, however, hardly have been possible to insist on the
dignitaries keeping residence while at the same
time refusing to grant them a canonical house or
a share in the profits of residence; and there seems
to have been no thought of increasing the number
of residentiaries. In 1670 the chapter told Archbishop Sheldon that the average sum from the
common fund (including fines) divided among the
dean and six residentiaries was about £450 a year,
which would give to each about £64. (fn. 542) The communar's accounts suggest, however, that this was
an under-estimate. There was still much competition for the residentiary places, and the system of
pre-election forbidden in 1635 was soon in force
again, as were the royal letters of recommendation. (fn. 543) In fact, most residentiaries of the late 17th
century seem to have been 'recommended' to the
chapter in royal letters. When the bishop or others
wished to obtain residentiary places for their kinsmen, friends, or chaplains they asked for royal
letters to the chapter in their favour. (fn. 544) On one
occasion, in 1674, the chapter held an election
'clandestinely' while Dean Brideoak was absent at
Windsor with the king, but was speedily rebuked.
The king directed that a regular election should be
held in the dean's presence, in which he did not
doubt that the chapter would comply with his
recommendation; but he did not attempt to override the rule which required residentiaries to be
chosen from the prebendaries. (fn. 545)

Bishop Ward kept the appointments to prebends
as far as possible in his own hands, giving some to
the poorly paid incumbents in market towns of the
diocese where the influence of the dissenters was
strongest, (fn. 546) a policy continued by Bishop Burnet.
Otherwise Ward's appointments were most remarkable for the very large number given to his
own relatives. (fn. 547) A cause of one of the bitterest,
most dramatic, and most astonishing disputes in
the cathedral's history was his grant of the rich
prebend of Teignton Regis to his nephew, Thomas
Ward; Thomas Pierce, who became dean in 1675,
badly wanted it for his son, Robert, and maintained
that the bishop had promised it to him. (fn. 548) Pierce
was probably the most difficult dean with whom
any bishop or chapter of Salisbury has been confronted. At first a Calvinist, he had turned Arminian during the Civil War, and proclaimed his
views with a convert's zeal. As President of Magdalen College, Oxford, after the Restoration he
gained a reputation for being 'high, proud, and
mad'; he expelled a fellow, defied the Visitor, and
was eventually forced to resign. (fn. 549) At Salisbury in
the 1680's Archbishop Sancroft's view was that the
dean's haughty and revengeful spirit was at the bottom of all the troubles which threw the cathedral
life into confusion and undid much of the careful
work of restoration of the previous 20 years. (fn. 550)
Pierce wanted both arbitrary power over the cathedral and revenge against the bishop for the slight
to his son. He therefore claimed that Salisbury
was no ordinary cathedral but a royal free chapel
directly subject to the king and exempt from the
bishop's jurisdiction and visitation. This chapel
had existed in the royal castle at Salisbury before
the Norman Conquest. Since the dean had existed
before the bishop and was immediately subject to
the king, his jurisdiction over his chapter and its
property was obviously greater than that of any
bishop; it could best be described as a kind of
archiepiscopal jurisdiction. The composition of
1392 which allowed episcopal visitation was void
because it was popish.

The result of all this extraordinary historical
research and invention was set out at first anonymously, then in formal petitions to the king protesting against the bishop's claim to collate to
prebends, and asking the king to forbid the bishop's
intended visitation of the cathedral in 1683 as an
infringement of royal rights, and finally in a virulent printed pamphlet, A Vindication of the King's
Sovereign Right. (fn. 551) The petitions were referred to
Lord North, Keeper of the Great Seal, and Sir
Robert Sawyer, the Attorney General, who pronounced strongly in the bishop's favour, and the
king was advised to allow the bishop's visitation to
proceed. (fn. 552) The visitation, however, served only to
reveal the deep divisions, quarrels, and resentments
in the cathedral body, so that Bishop Ward wrote
in dismay to Archbishop Sancroft for advice and
help. 'Matters are at such a crisis here (by the
perversion of some persons) that it. is very hard
for the many wise and good men who are here to
withstand the atheism, profaneness and debauchery
visibly breaking out.' (fn. 553) The dean had won the
allegiance of one residentiary canon, Francis Horton, and of two vicars choral, John Hopkins and
William Powell, who seem to have been the most
disreputable members of their body. In opposition
were ranged all the other five residentiary canons,
led by the precentor, Daniel Whitby, whom Dean
Pierce described as 'our Protestant Embroiler, an
eminent misleader of his brethren', and by Seth
Ward, the bishop's nephew. (fn. 554) After his visitation
the bishop became mentally ill with worry. The
dean published further libellous pamphlets against
him and stirred up the lay vicars to disregard his
wishes. (fn. 555) The Bishop of Bristol, after visiting
Salisbury, wrote to tell his archbishop that there
was now a scandalous neglect of the services. (fn. 556)
Relations between the dean and chapter also became steadily worse. In 1685 the five residentiaries
petitioned the archbishop to prevent the dean from
acting independently of his chapter, saying that
their visitor, the bishop, was detained by sickness
and could not protect them. All their complaints
were confirmed by Geoffrey Frome, the chapter
clerk, and defiantly admitted by the dean. He had
kept the chapter seal for nine months while frequently absent from Salisbury, thus making it impossible for leases and other documents to be sealed.
He had admitted a lay vicar and dismissed the vicar
of the close (that is, the vicar choral with cure of
souls in the close) on his own authority, and had
ordered his acts as dean alone, without the chapter,
to be registered in the chapter act book. He had
refused to allow the customary annual election of
a custos munimentorum and Masters of the Fabric
from among the canons, but had kept both offices
and all the fabric money in his own hands. He had
presented no accounts of the fabric fund, and he
had had a special key for the muniment chest made
for himself. (fn. 557) Eventually the king and archbishop
decided that the dean must be forced to submit and
apologize to the bishop; that the chapter must have
its privileges restored, and that a metropolitan
visitation of the cathedral should be made by royal
command to prevent further disorders. (fn. 558) These
things were done, but a further proposal to issue
a complete new set of statutes for the cathedral
was abandoned. In July 1686 the dean asked the
bishop for pardon and humbly begged restoration
to his former favour and friendship. In the same
month the archbishop's commissaries began their
visitation. They made a solemn peace between
bishop, dean, and canons, and the dean and chapter
formally declared that their church was not a royal
chapel but a cathedral, and that the bishop had the
right to visit every seven years according to the
composition of 1392. (fn. 559)

The state of the cathedral as revealed in the
archbishop's detecta of 1686 was, not unnaturally,
less satisfactory than at Bishop Ward's first visitation of 1671, though efforts were being made to
restore order. The rota of residence was apparently
being observed for the most part, though there
were some irregularities and two members of the
chapter had dispensations from residence at their
other benefices. The prebendaries complained that
the residentiaries were not exercising their duties
of hospitality to them. Prebendary Townson declared that, when he was present in the close eight
times in the extreme heat of mid-June, Dr. Whitby and Dr. Lambert would not offer, him a cup
of small beer to refresh him. Communion was
celebrated once a month instead of once a week
as the canons of the Church of England directed.
Canon Horton was said seldom to be present at the
service, while two other canons had been absent
last month, one (Seth Ward) because he had
been officiating instead at the bishop's palace. The
chapter did not often exact the duty of attending
communion from the vicars choral, since nearly
all served nearby cures, where they had to administer the sacrament and preach on Sundays. The
choir seems on the whole to have been efficient.
The six vicars choral and seven lay vicars provided
five basses, four tenors, and four counter-tenors.
No complaints were made of their skill in music,
and they were all said normally to be present at
each of the two daily services, though some sometimes came late or went early. Michael Wise received high praise for his skill as an organist, but
was erratic in his attendances. The vicars did not
all live in their proper houses in the close, but
explained that some lay vicars were tradesmen in
the city and lived at their shops. (fn. 560)

The settlement of the great dispute was followed
in rapid succession by the Revolution (when
James II stayed for a few nights at the bishop's
palace, and three or four prebendaries were later
deprived of their prebends as non-jurors), (fn. 561) and by
the deaths of Bishop Ward in 1689 and of Dean
Pierce in 1691. With the remarkable Gilbert
Burner, a Scot and latitudinarian, as its bishop, and
Robert Woodward, a lawyer and good administrator, as its dean, the chapter entered on a new
phase of its existence.

396. e.g. the royal injunctions of 1547 and 1559, that the
entrance fee for residentiaries should be limited to £20, was
observed from 1547 to 1552 but disregarded from 1554:
Frere, Visitation Articles, ii, 137; D. & C. Sar., Reg. Holte
and Blacker, ff. 42, 49, 56, 63–64, 74–75, 134.

418. F. E. Brightman, The English Rite, 1915, i, lxxix,
1 sqq.; ii, passim; G. Dix, Shape of the Liturgy, 613–734,
passim, especially 645, 659–60. The second Prayer Book of
1552, however, went much farther, altering the structure
of the services and following continental rather than
English practices and doctrine.